Lysogeny by f2 phage?

Abstract

TWO prominent properties of lysogenic bacteria are, first, inheritable potentiality for phage production and, second, immunity against homologous phage. Both characteristics are unaffected by growth in the presence of phage antiserum or by serial subcultures of single colonies. This indicates that every lysogenic cell carries the genetic information for the biosynthesis of a given type of the phage particle1; so far, however, this has been known only for some DNA bacteriophages. I present here the first demonstration that bacteria can also contain the genetic information for the production of an RNA phage. If Escherichia coli bacteria are grown and infected with f2 RNA phage in liquid medium supplemented with guanidinium chloride, many cells subsequently behave as true lysogens. They are ‘immune’ to f2 and spontaneously release phage identical in morphology, plaque type, serological property, male specificity and single-stranded RNA genome, to the phage used for the initial infection.